Technology For Agriculture LLC
1855-A West Davenport St., Rhinelander, WI 54501 | Rolf's Mobil 715-360-3660 * Fax 715-362-7595 |
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Which Stalls - ProTime I or ProTime II?
What are the differences?
Why 'ProTime'? It's an acronym
PRO fessional designed
T otally
I ntegrated
M ilking
E nvironment
Until the late 80s parlors were put together out of low cost bits and pieces, galvanized or painted, from different manufacturers.
Tucked away in a far corner of the stanchion barn, they degraded quickly into dark, damp and dirty, dungeons. Nobody was happy to be there, not the owners, nor the milkers, nor the cows.
Then something struck us:
The Cows and the Milkers are the owner's greatest assets, more valuable than the land. Then why stick 'em into those dungeons? No wonder SCCs where high, bacteria out of control, production low and milking slow, with everybody hollering at everybody else.
Let's Start Over!
- Let's design all-stainless Parlor Stalls that are easy to clean - and stalls that would last!
- with Automatic Indexing and the udders are right there in front of you
- with Rapid Exit to speed things up
- With Arm TakeOffs, to eliminate squawking and fall-offs and all that chasing after them
- with a integrated Cow Traffic System, everything power operated and very few buttons to push
- with lots and lots of light, preferably with the whole front wall made of windows, so we could see the udders and every speck of dirt on the equipment
- with white walls and white ceilings to reflect and maximize the light
- and maybe white uniforms for the milkers
- with comfortable pit mats you wouldn't mind walking on for a few hours
- and rubber mats for the cows
- LOTS of ventilation
- A first-class stereo system and lots of CDs of the milkers favorite tunes
- Maybe even an Automatic BackFlush System to milk every cow with sanitized teat cups
- and everything controlled by compressed air to eliminate high maintenance costs of electronics (only the lights and the radio would be electronically operated).
How about it?
Professionally Designed, Totally Integrated Milking Environment indeed!
The result was ProTime I.
The Darn Near Perfect Parlor!
Why then ProTime II?
To get all that light to the udders we eliminated any and all overhead structures across the pit. You know the one where you park your lunch bucket, tie-down ropes, aprons and fly catchers, all the stuff that lead to the dungeon to begin with. Then we didn't want anything across the cow platform, either, to make the cow platform as wide open as possible.
But how then to support the RumpRails? How would we keep them from tipping over? Radical solution - let's support them right off the curb - at every stall!
While ProTime I Stalls took off like a rocket East of the Rockies, our West Coast customers where skeptical. They had never seen Automatic Indexing and how very well it could position the cows. Having been used to groping after udders of loosely parked heifers by crawling underneath one to get to the other in parlors without indexing, they didn't trust the structural supports at every stall.. Too dangerous in their view for the milker.
They did like, and then some, the idea of All-Stainless and All-Air Controls and Arm TakeOffs and all the other good stuff of ProTime Parlors and they were ready to buy big parlors!.So we changed the design for them - the result was ProTime-II
ProTime I - 6" wide column down to the curb at every stall
ProTime II - virtually no columns, only a 2" tube every few stalls
How to Support the Rump-Rails?
Which Model Arm TakeOffs? What Visibility of Cows?
Model SB in ProTime I view from Holding Pen
Legacy 9000 in ProTime II view from Holding Pen
Legacy 9000 in ProTime II view from Breezeway
Model SB in PT-II
view from Holding Pen
Model SB in PT-I
view from Breezeway
Bottom Line:
1) Visibility of the cows is slightly better in a ProTime II, with either Model SB or Legacy 9000 Arm TakeOff.
2) ProTime I Stalls have the automatic CIP Cup Holders. Now you see them, then you don't. Just push a button.
3) The Basics are the same: Brisket Bar, Rapid Exit, Auto Indexing, Entrance nd Exit Gates, Curbing, Gutter and Grates, etc.
The winner? ProTime I!
So, what's the bottom line?
If you are indeed worried about heifers being in lousy position, where you have to crawl halfway up the cow platform to get to the other udder, PT-II, without the columns in the way, is indeed better. But then look at the positioning of the heifers and cows above - with Automatic Indexing the udders are right there. What difference would the columns make?
THE STORY IN PICTURES
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